The 2018 NACO Annual Conference will be held in Kearney at the Younes Convention Center. The conference dates are December 12 through 14.

Rooms have been contracted at the LaQuinta Inn, the Hampton Inn, the Holiday Inn, the Holiday Inn Express, the Comfort Inn, the Candlewood Suites and the Fairfield Inn for $109.95 per night for single and double rooms and suites are contracted for $129.95 per night.

Hotel rooms will be available for booking on and after Monday, June 18, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. CDT.

You must phone the hotel of choice to make reservations stating that you are attending the conference to receive the group discounted room rate. Only guaranteed reservations will be accepted. Reservations must be guaranteed with either a credit card or by direct billing back to your county.

PLEASE NOTE: Reservations may be made initially under the county name but must all have individual names of who will occupy each room no later than November 12, 2018. Any reservation being held under the county name after this date will be cancelled. Any reservations made at non-headquarter hotels listed below are not contracted to the specific rate mentioned above.

At this time, NACO is not making a recommendation for counties as to how to proceed or whether to do so in the first place. Obviously, we encourage each county to evaluate the issues and determine what is most appropriate for your county. Attorney Generals are promoting a three prong approach to addressing the opioid crisis – prevention, enforcement and treatment.

Currently, Knox County is the only county in Nebraska that is part of the Multi-state District Litigation (MDL) to our knowledge. Also, parties to the MDL are some of the Nebraska Tribes. Only two counties have, that we are aware of, retained attorneys to represent them to determine whether or not to file litigation. While other counties have not retained an attorney at this time, there are some that are evaluating the benefit of doing so.

A couple of cautions if you do determine it is in your county’s best interest to retain an attorney(s), include but are not limited to:

Desirability of no fee unless recovery obtained;

Consider the contingency rates (I’ve seen as low as 20% to as high as 30% and we believe one of the other county cases filed in the MDL has as low as 5% if recovery is above 25 million dollars (this is a sliding fee contingency fee agreement));

Consider the allocation of how expenses will be assessed if recovery is made (costs to collect data may be excessive and eat up a very large portion of any recovery);

Termination of counsel; and

Electronic data costs may also be large; therefore, consider how they will be allocated.

Also of important note;

distribution will be based on metrics to be determined and it is highly unlikely that Attorney Generals will control distribution;

not a lot of money expected for settlement;

contingency may take entirety or vast majority of any recovery if county lawsuit;

treatment likely to be focus of settlement;

does not necessarily matter on the theory of liability, settlement will likely focus on damages.

Here is a copy of the Attorney General's power point presentation at the recent County Board Workshop. Below are the recent You Tube video releases to bring about awareness.

In 2008, Congress significantly amended the PILT statute by mandating full funding through 2014 and removing language that limited the federal government's payment obligation to the amounts appropriated by Congress. Congress has never reinserted that language. For 2015-17, because of insufficient appropriations, PILT recipients did not receive the full amount to which they were entitled under the PILT statute based on the U.S. Department of the Interior's full payment calculation. Kane County, Utah filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, seeking to recover its own underpayments and the underpayments of a class made up of all other PILT recipients in those years.

Several months ago, the Court ruled in Kane County's favor and certified the lawsuit as a class action. The Court also named Smith Currie & Hancock, LLP, Kane County's lawyers, as Class Counsel to represent all members of the class. The Court ordered that an official Notice of these events be sent to each underpaid PILT recipient. That Notice will be mailed on June 19 to all PILT recipients.

If you wish to view the Notice before it arrives in the mail, please visit Class Counsel's website, here. At the website you will find a link to the Notice—plus copies of Court orders, FAQs about the lawsuit and a form for submitting questions to Class Counsel. If you do not receive the Notice in the mail by the end of next week, you should go to the above website and inform Class Counsel.

The Notice explains that to participate in the class action lawsuit, and collect the amounts due to them through the class action lawsuit, each underpaid PILT recipient must complete and submit a form "opting into" the lawsuit. If you do not submit the form, you will not be included in the class action lawsuit—and will not receive what would otherwise be your share of any monies recovered.

Additionally, NACo is scheduling a conference call with the Class Counsel on June 19 at 3 p.m. EDT. All PILT recipients and state associations of counties are invited to join that call, where Alan Saltman from Smith, Currie & Hancock, LLP will be available

to answer any questions.

Climate and Water

Institute of Excellence Offering

Nebraska’s communities are increasingly faced with extreme weather conditions, worries about water, and a changing climate. These events can have large impacts on a community economically, through lost tax revenue; physically, when infrastructure is damaged; and socially, with decreased visitors and population. Government officials have to handle these issues that are becoming progressively complex.

Faculty from Nebraska Extension, the National Drought Mitigation Center, and the UNL School of Natural Resources are partnering to deliver a day-long Climate and Water Institute of Excellence for government officials/employees and other key community leaders and decision-makers on Friday, September 7 in Lincoln.

Cost of the workshop is $60 and the registration deadline is August 31, 2018. To start the online registration process or to review the agenda click here.

NACO Board of Directors

Transition Plan Update

The NACO Board’s Transition Committee has held numerous meetings and conference calls over the past 2 months in the search for the NACO Deputy Director. 48 applications were received and reviewed by Zelle Resource Solutions, the search firm selected to assist in the hiring process.

Of those 48 applications, Zelle conducted personal interviews with 13 individuals to determine the skill set of each of the applicants. After receiving an update on those individuals, the NACO Transition Committee is preparing to conduct personal interviews with a small number of finalists over the next few weeks.

As the timeline for this process continues, the NACO Transition Committee and the NACO Board will meet to make a final determination to select the new NACO Deputy Director.

MIPS Bytes

DisplayPort vs HDMI vs DVI vs VGA

If you are like me, you want the newest and best computer hardware / technology out there on a limited budget. You want a new computer, but why replace that perfectly good monitor. Or, maybe you are looking at adding a 2nd monitor. In this article, I’m going to discuss the 4 major connection types between computers and monitors. We will start with the oldest relevant connection (VGA) and work forward. Before we get started, here are some definitions you will need to know.

According to Wikipedia: Screen Resolution or display modes of a digital television, computer monitor or other display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. Refresh Rate is the number of times in a second that a display hardware updates its buffer. Refresh rate includes the repeated drawing of identical frames, while frame rate measures how often a video source can feed an entire frame of new data to a display. Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) is the general term for a dynamic display refresh rate that can continuously and seamlessly vary on the fly.

VGA (Video Graphics Array) also known as D-Sub is an analog connection and can deliver a resolution of 1080P (1920x1080) at a refresh rate of 60Hz. This connection was widely used back in the CRT days. Limit its use to maybe a backup / secondary display where newer connection types are not available.

DVI (Digital Visual Interface) is probably the most common connection type between graphics cards and monitors. There are three different variants of the DVI. DVI-A is an analog connection and limited to the resolution and refresh rate similar to that of VGA. DVI-D is a digital connection, and the DVI-I is a combined analog / digital connection. DVI-D and DVI-I also consist of a Single-Link and Dual-Link version. The Dual-Link versions support higher resolutions and refresh rates over the Single-Link counterpart. Cables differ between the different variants and versions, so (if possible) try to stick with the cables that came with the computer / graphics card.

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is probably the most popular connection type as it works with most modern TVs, monitors, and graphics cards. One of the main reasons for it’s popularity is that HDMI can also transmit sound (multimedia) over the single cable, whereas the DVI and VGA cannot. When HDMI was first developed, it was limited to the same maximums as VGA and DVI. But, as technology is continually evolving, the newer versions of HDMI can support 4K (3840x2160) resolutions, HDR and 3D. The newest version (2.1) can support resolutions up to 8K at 120Hz.

DP (Display Port) is probably the best for high resolution, high refresh rates, and gaming. While VGA, DVI & HDMI only push a signal from the source to the destination, DP can send signals both directions. So, instead of just pushing a signal to the display, DP allows the graphics card and monitor to potentially talk to each other. If your graphics card “and” monitor support FreeSync(AMD) or G-Sync(NVidia), dynamic refresh rate is aimed at reducing tearing and stuttering caused by misalignment with content’s frame rate. If you are into VR (virtual reality) or gaming, Display Ports are a must.

Keep in mind, all technologies have different specifications, and what works for you today may not work tomorrow. Do your homework on what specifications your current and new hardware support. At some point, it’s just better to scrap that older hardware and buy new.

County Government Day PowerPoint

The PowerPoint presentation is available electronically at no charge (sent via e-mail) for use by counties during their annual County Government Day. The PowerPoint provides a comprehensive look at county government functions in the State of Nebraska and can be customized by each county. CD's are also available for $10.00 each to cover processing, shipping and handling. To request the County Government Day PowerPoint electronically, please e-mail your request to larrydix@nacone.org.

Newly Revised -- 2017 County Board Handbook and Related Revisions are Now Available

The cost for a current handbook, including legislative information from the 2017 session, is $80.00/book plus $18.00 shipping and handling per book. The 2017 Supplement to the County Board Handbook is available for $25.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling. The order form is available on the NACO website or by clicking here.

If you are interested in purchasing a complete handbook or a supplement please contact Deb Spira or call her at (402) 434-5660 ext. 232.

News from NACo

The National Association of Counties (NACo) hopes you will participate in their Annual Conference & Exposition in Nashville/Davidson County, Tenn. July 13–16.

The NACo Annual Conference & Exposition is the only meeting that draws a cross section of elected officials and county staff from across the country. Attendees from rural and urban counties, large and small budgets and staff – all come together to shape NACo's federal policy agenda, learn, network and share best practices all aimed to help improve residents’ lives and the efficiency of county government.

Part of the Stepping Up framework encourages counties to focus their efforts on impacting one or more of “Four Key Measures” for people with mental illnesses: jail bookings, jail length of stay, connections to treatment and recidivism. The next series of Stepping Up webinars will focus on providing counties with the tools they need to collect accurate data on each of these measures and use this data to inform policy and practice decisions to impact them. Join Stepping Up for the first webinar in the Four Key Measures series, which will provide an overview of each of the measures, describe strategies for reducing the number of people with mental illnesses who are booked into jails and outline key data points to collect and analyze to track this measure of success.